Rankin

Waddell was brought up in St Albans, Hertfordshire. At the age of 21, whilst studying accounting at Brighton Polytechnic, he realised that his interests lay elsewhere and dropped out, taking up the study photography at London College of Printing. During this time, Rankin met Jefferson Hack, with whom he formed a working relationship. The two decided to start a magazine together called Dazed & Confused once they had graduated.

In 1999 Hack and Rankin founded Dazed Film & TV, a production company that would produce the first mast-head[clarification needed] television broadcast ever, the four hour special Renegade TV Gets Dazed, for Channel 4. In December 2000 Rankin launched his own quarterly fashion magazine, RANK. He also publishes Another Magazine, Another Man and more recently "HUNGER".

His many subjects have included Britney Spears, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Spice Girls, Madonna, David Bowie, Björk, Juliette Binoche, Lily Allen, Kevin Spacey, The Rolling Stones, Vivienne Westwood, Cate Blanchett, Damien Hirst, Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and M.I.A..

In addition, Rankin has donated his services to publicity campaigns for the charitable organisation Women's Aid, providing photographs for use in the What's it going to take? and Valentine's Day campaigns.

Rankin began 2009 by inviting people across the UK to participate in his project Rankin Live!. A show of two halves, Rankin brought a museum scale retrospective of the last 22 years of Rankin’s photographic life, together with portraits of 1500 of today’s British public. Open to people over thirteen who had a distinctive style, sense of British eccentricity and enthusiasm. The participants were invited to the Rankin Live exhibition at the Truman Brewery in August to sit for their personal shoot. The portraits produced on the day were hung as part of the ever-changing exhibition and uploaded to the Rankin Live website.

In April 2009 Rankin created ‘’Annroy’’, a contemporary structure designed by Trevor Horne Architects that is home to Rankin’s own state-of-the-art photographic studio, gallery and chic living space, where he lives with his wife and model Tuuli Shipster. Each month ‘’Annroy’’ holds a different exhibition, which features some of Rankin’s current work.

Rankin was first married to actress Kate Hardie. They married in 1995, divorced in 1998 and had a son, Lyle, together.

Rankin has photographed some of Hollywood’s most famous people and has shot some world-renowned campaigns, including Nike, Umbro, Reebok, Marks and Spencer’s, Rimmel, L’Oreal, Hugo Boss, Levi's, Shiatzy Chen, Thomas Wylde, Longchamp, Aussi, Madonna for H&M, Dove, BMW, and Coca Cola.